Karzai gets emotional after suicide attack

Wednesday

Sep 29, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2010 at 11:47 AM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai broke into tears yesterday while delivering a speech in which he questioned the efficacy of the NATO military mission in Afghanistan while condemning the violence that's gripping his country.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai broke into tears yesterday while delivering a speech in which he questioned the efficacy of the NATO military mission in Afghanistan while condemning the violence that’s gripping his country.

In the same speech, the Afghan leader called on Taliban “compatriots” to lay down their arms. The government yesterday named a nearly 70-member council tasked with making peace overtures to the insurgency, whose leaders so far have rebuffed Karzai’s appeals to come to the bargaining table.

The presidential outburst apparently was prompted by the assassination of a deputy governor in Ghazni province, south of Kabul, which has become a hotbed of insurgent activity. A suicide blast aimed at the convoy of the deputy governor, Khazim Allayar, killed him and at least six other people, Afghan officials said.

Karzai’s office issued a statement condemning the attack, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.

Also yesterday, the U.S. Defense Department announced the death of a soldier from Cincinnati.

Army Spc. Donald S. Morrison, 23, died Sunday in Kandahar, a day after his military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device at Forward Operating Base Frontenac.

Karazi’s display of tears coincides with the release of a book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, who cited intelligence reports asserting that Karzai — known for his mercurial temperament — has been diagnosed as manic-depressive and is on medication.

Emotional displays are not considered all that unusual in Afghan public life. Karzai has cried in public before, when denouncing civilian casualties caused by Western troops.

He has been under heavy pressure from the Obama administration and other NATO partners to clean up corruption in his government. Two of the president’s brothers, Mahmood Karzai and Ahmad Wali Karzai, have come under scrutiny over their financial dealings.

Mahmood Karzai, a U.S. citizen who divides his time between Dubai, Afghanistan and the United States, is the subject of a federal corruption probe in New York, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Mahmood Karzai, who also partly owns a troubled bank in Kabul, has denied any wrongdoing.

Ahmad Wali Karzai is the main powerbroker in Kandahar province, currently the scene of an ongoing NATO offensive that officials have described as potentially pivotal to the war’s outcome.

Karzai became emotional during an address at an event in Kabul focused on improving literacy. Dwelling on Afghanistan’s more than 30 years of warfare, he recalled the Soviet era, alluded to meddling by Afghanistan’s neighbors, and then added: “NATO is here, fighting against terrorism for 10 years — fighting with no result.”

The president’s eyes welled and his voice cracked when he expressed fears that young Afghans might choose to emigrate rather than live amid spiraling violence. He wept outright as he spoke of his son Mirwais, a preschooler who was born in 2007.

“I do not want Mirwais, my son, to be a foreigner. … I want Mirwais to be Afghan, to grow up in this land, to go to school here,” Karzai said. “I want Afghan teachers to teach him, I want him to grow up and become a doctor and serve his people, and be buried here.”